Social Skills

Social Skills CurriculumBanyan High School has a variety of social and skill-building small groups based upon grade and/or student need. These groups include basic conversational skill-building groups and student-driven conversational groups with topics such as cyber-safety, drug/alcohol awareness, self-esteem, self-exploration, tolerance, etc. The younger groups also address self-understanding of their disability and self-advocacy. The older students partake in a workplace social skills group run by the SLE coordinator. The goal of all of these groups is to help students become more confident individuals and increase their comfort in social situations. Therefore, their social skills are reinforced during the school year through our extracurricular activities, so students have an opportunity to generalize their social skills learning in the real world.

CounselingBanyan High School strives to meet the needs of every student through the academic program and through the support programs. Although Banyan is not a “Therapy-Based” place of education, guidance and counseling are intended to offer students the support they need to achieve within their respective program of study.

Students receive individually-focused support to meet their academic needs as well as group activities to develop character, empathy, respect, and self-reliance. The goal of the Counseling program is to allow students to focus more on achievement than labels. Within the scope of their educational plan, students are encouraged to reach high in their own expectations and beliefs about what they can achieve.

The role of the School Counselor does not end at the end with student counseling. Cooperation with the Child Study Team, Case Managers, School Administrators, Parents, Guardians, and Therapy Teams is a main focus to bring about positive student outcomes that allow for developmental changes and progress to occur.